"rein"

[kaoskastle]

I found the word "re i n" in a text that's been consistantly Japanese, but I can find no translation of the word anywhere. The text uses its own writing system, so I don't know whether it's katakana or hiragana. But is there an actual word in the Japanese language pronounced "rein", and if so, what does it mean?

Thanks!

[Psy]

The only official dictionary match is "rain," but according to wikipedia there are many references in pop culture, movies, songs, people, books etc. Since there isn't any context to work with, it's difficult to give you anything more than that.

As a fan of writing systems, I'm curious about this writing system you've mentioned-- this something you found online or in the real world?

[kaoskastle]

Right! I suppose I should have mentioned that it's used in conjunction with the name of a village, though the sign appears within said village's graveyard.

Also, the writing system. Well, uh, it's, uh... Hylian. The specific variation from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask, to be precise.
I KNOW you're not supposed to learn Japanese from games and anime and stuff, and believe you me, I don't. I just want to know what the heck this sign means. D:
For further clarification, the sign reads "Uerukamu Kakarikorein". "Urerukamu" being "Welcome", I believe; "Kakariko" is the name of the village. So welcome to Kakariko... what?? Other signs have said "Kakarikomura", so I'm guessing that "rein" is something relating to graveyards, considering that the sign in the graveyard is the only time in the game that "rein" appears.

If you're interested at all in reading this (I'm sure it was exciting until "oh, it's from a game. hrmmm" ), there's a guide here, which I can guarantee is at least 99% accurate -- I've been using it successfully for a while now, so.

[Psy]

Cool. It. Down. O. Chi. Tsu. I. Te.

I think most people from my generation and back can all agree that the Zelda series has reached, at one point or another, amongst the highest peaks that exist in terms of gaming awesomeness. That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using something you like as a means to learn Japanese. The general advice is that, while using games/comics/whatever, you should simply be aware that there are times where the expressions used are uncommon, colloquial or nuanced in ways you won't clearly understand (or would be socially inappropriate in the real world) without having a more formal study of the language. This in no-way means you should prohibit yourself-- far from it. The more exposure, the better!

Besides, to go this far requires some serious dedication. I like serious dedication. As a fan of the series myself, I'll look a little bit into this, but I might not find anything. I can't think of what "kakarikorein" would mean off the top of my head, aside from maybe a pathetic attempt at an English "Kakarikorian"...

[kaoskastle]

Oh, wow, a fellow Zelda fan. Didn't expect that!

But yeah, that's a good point regarding the use of games / manga / etc. for Japanese learning. I have actually picked up a few words here and there, I'm just afraid to use a lot of them (mainly the pronouns used to refer to people) until I'm better at the language. Thanks for the protip, there.

Thanks for helping me look into this -- it'll be quite interesting to see what turns up! It's got me even more frustrated because I accidentally mistranslated this sign a while back (I think that I just assumed that "rein" was "village", which I now know to be 村).

[Psy]

Well, I went ahead and took a good look at the in-game signage, and without a doubt (at least going by way of the omniglot page), it says kakarikorein. The only other possibility I can imagine is that it's being used the sense of a "lane," e.g. "welcome to kakariko lane," which doesn't make a whole lot of sense given that it's a graveyard and not a road, but then again this wouldn't be the first time that Japanese folks have done something nonsensical with the English language. To close:



チェ。これでゲームヲタになっちゃった気がする。

[kaoskastle]

Yeah, "lane" was the only possible thing I could think of as well, but I came to the same conclusion as you did. I fear we may never know what the heck this means.

p.s. i really have no idea what you said. D: I can read both phrases, but I've got very little idea as to what they mean. My Japanese is... mildly conversational, at best.